When he’s not judging Design and Print Craft at ADFEST, industrial designer Andrew Simpson can be found tinkering with 3D printers and bicycles at Vert Design in Sydney.

 
Can you discuss your passion for working in environmentally friendly design?
 
“It goes back to the saying that all pollution is just a resource we haven’t found a use for yet. At Vert, we look at two sides – we look at the materiality, the embodiment of a product; and the user interaction and perception of value. Those two things give us the boundaries of design.”

 
Can you tell me how that relates to advertising?
 
“Advertising, traditionally, designs pretty badly. All design solves a problem – the difference is the nature of the problem that you’re solving. Oftentimes, those problems are real problems and sometimes, they’re fabricated problems. In advertising, the intention is to look like you’re solving a problem, but in reality, you’re not.”

 
Tangibly speaking, how does that affect the advertising realm?
 
“I’ll give you an example. I once worked for a large coffee company that made a big claim about recycling. But when I dug into it, their claim fell very flat. They wanted us to design a product that highlighted its sustainability, yet we realized that the produce produces more pollution and waste in the recycling than it did in the consumption. Their goal was to tell the story regardless of the honesty behind it. What I try to do is look at the industrial integrity of the product, rather than the perception.”

 
What are you experiences regarding how genuine companies are in regards to ‘going green’?
 
“I think that’s a very advertising approach – that it might be a trend. The reality is we only have one planet with finite resources. In Southeast Asia especially, we need to consume less, recycle more. Otherwise literally, there’s not enough planet to go around.”

 
How do you keep peoples’ attention in the modern age?
 
“Good design has depth to it. Bad design might be a one-line joke. It’s funny once, and then it’s gone. Very good design oftentimes takes time to understand, but once you do, it stays with you.”

 
Would you give any advice to people entering design awards?
 
“I do a lot of judging and I usually see a lot of similar works come through. My criteria for judging – there’s always two parts to it. There’s an idea and there’s a realization. You need to look at the quality of the idea and the problem they’re trying to solve. And then you look at their solution to that problem.

 
Sometimes people will articulate a problem that doesn’t exist. Other times, people will illustrate a strong problem, but their idea kind of falls flat. You need to do both well.”

 
How is advertising and design appealing to different genders?
 
“Gender lines aren’t as clear-cut as people make them out. I did some work for Aesop, a skincare brand that is very successful selling to a female audience. However, most of their design cues are very masculine. Think of tech devices like an iPhone. It’s genderless but it has more of a male aesthetic so the gender lines are becoming less important compared to social law or geopolitical differences.”

 
- Mahmood Ali